Category Archives: Book Review

So, I receive one more novel, “ The Umbilical Cord” to review by the author Santosh Avvannavar. This book is a compilation of 40 short stories, which manifests distinctive but meaningful messages. As we all know Umbilical Cord is a flexible cord-like structure containing blood vessels and appending a human or other mammalian embryo to the placenta during incubation. The author here uses The Umbilical Cord as a metaphor to bring social awareness and intends to draw the reader’s attention towards the society.

The stories in this book revolves around love, forgiveness, empathy as society is a cobweb of relationships. The stories are short and quick to read and each story has a message for us. We might even relate to some stories here. There is one cord which tells us that it’s never too late to ask for forgiveness from someone. We might have done something wrong, deceit someone close and then we regret for what we have done. It is always difficult to say sorry and expect forgiveness, but we should ask for forgiveness as soon as realise. Remember karma always pays back. Another cord narrates a story about a man whose perception changed after watching one movie and how he realised that attraction, lust and desire are the key elements that can ruin any relationships, and he realised this soon and became a changed husband and a father. One cord has a story where it tells us that Love can lead to a new beginning, but fantasy can lead to an end. This cord sends a message that love won’t harm anyone, but fantasy can make one do something that is wrong. What if you truly love someone and your love does something evil to just win you over. Will you trust him or her with your life or will you do the thing that is practically right?

There are various such stories (cord) that has different messages to share with us. The author has done a good job by creating social awareness through this book. As the author says, “ There is something for everyone in this book.” So do read this book. You can buy his book at

Recently, I received a copy of a book named ‘She Ekla Cholo Re‘ which was sent to me by one of the authors, Mr Santosh Avvannavar. It’s a fifty eight page short story book which revolves around the life of the lead protagonist Kusum. “She“, the book is about finding one’s own identity in a world where the only gender known and respected is He or She. A world where people won’t easily accept you, if you are born as a transgender.

The story is about Kusum who tries to discover her true identity. When Kusum was born as a boy, people around her often pondered of her gender. Some thought of her as a girl and some thought of her as a boy. But soon Kusum realized that she has feminine attributes inside her. Her father, who was a doctor expected her to behave like a true gentlemen and show some masculine traits. He was afraid that the world would snicker at him seeing his son behaving as a woman. Despite of the several problems, Kusum freed herself from all the barriers and chose the path of femininity. But, in the world where the society respects less of one being a transgender, she was not bolstered by her parents and also deserted by her love of life too who left her because of the pressure he got from his family. Kusum felt betrayed and alone, but she decided not to give up and she decided to walk on her chosen path.

The book starts with the professor Rajendra who later met the lead protagonist Kusum on some highway. He saw her standing alone on the deserted highway and thought of helping her by offering her a lift. Kusum expressed gratitude towards him for his help and sat in his car. Gradually, they began to converse with each other. Listening to her story Rajendra felt a surge of belonging towards her. He accepted the way she was and felt sorry for her of how society reacted towards her being a transgender.

It’s a sweet and a very short story with the pungent and a strong message that says, to never give up and move on even if you are alone. Don’t live the way, the society desire or expect you to be. Instead live on your terms and show the world the real you. The author gets the motivation to write this book from the famous Rabindranath Tagore’s song ” Ekla Cholo Re” where one line of the song is ” Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na ase Tobe Ekla Cholo Re” which means ” If they answer not to your call, walk alone.”

Every action has a reason. Till date, we have considered Lord Krishna and Pandava brothers as our great heroes who fought to eliminate the evils from the world. We considered Duryodhana as an evil king, but after reading the novel Ajaya, my perspective has changed towards Duryodhana. The novel gave me a thought that the biggest Kurukshetra battle could have been avoided, if Princess Draupadi with her Pandava husbands wouldn’t have insulted Prince Duryodhana when he had been to their palace Indraprastha to ask for injustice done against the poor. The palace Indraprastha was built in such a way, where Duryodhana had unknowingly stepped into the water pool, as he couldn’t distinguish that it wasn’t the floor and he fell flat on his face. His dhoti slipped and lay limp in the water. Everybody present there had laughed at him except his friends. He felt insulted and in anger he called his cousins for the game of dice, which was in a way plan of his uncle Shakuni. In the game of dice, Yudhishtra lost everything, including himself and his brothers and Draupadi too. In anger, King Karna said Prince Duryodhana to remove her clothes in front of everyone, after which Princess Draupadi decided to take revenge for the affront done to her. If King Duryodhana had known that Princess Draupadi had already apologized to his wife Bhanumati for her action earlier, then things could have been avoided which in turn led to the biggest war in the history.

The Wedding Trousseau and other short stories are a collection of 11 short stories written by Ankita Sharma. Some of the tales are inspired from the real life experiences and others are drawn from the author’s free imaginations.

Each story reflects the different sides of the human psyche and also shows the diverse shades of the human relationships. Some of the stories will make you think of our society and their narrow thinkings, some stories would teach you a few nice and motivatinglessons, while some stories are just a simple read for fun. The novel can be relished by any age group readers.

Personally, I have enjoyed reading the novel and one can complete the book in a day due to the less number of pages. I found some of the stories very interesting and it kept me glued till the final word of the story, while a few stories seemed quite incomplete to me with no proper end. What I like the most about the novel is, every story is different from the other and some stories had a moral behind it.

About the author:

Ankita Sharma is passionate about writing, reading and sketching. Her Sketch works have appeared on the cover pages of a few titles. She loves nature and is very fond of animals. She blogs at www.hummingwords.blogspot.in